1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a method and system for data processing and in particular to an improved method and system of activating bookmarks based upon the location of a user. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to an improved method and system for performing commands based upon the user""s location and, alternatively, the time of day.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pervasive computing devices are available to perform a wide variety of tasks in today""s business arena. Semiconductor technology has enabled devices from telephones and personal computers to refrigerators and household appliances to better assist people in their daily activities. Cellular telephones, for example, can not only be used to place telephone calls but can also be used to access the Internet, check stock quotes and sports scores, and act as a personal digital assistant (or PDA). Personal computer systems are also becoming smaller, more portable, as well as more powerful.
In turn with technology, the modern business environment has become more competitive and more complex. The modern business environment entails more traveling than previously needed. Business markets are more often global, rather than regional, in nature because of technology that allows businesses to provide goods and services to customers regardless of the customers"" location. Business customers are consequently located in vast areas, often quite distant from the organization""s main facility. The advent of the Internet facilitates even small home-based businesses to have a global presence for minimal cost. Business people frequently travel to customers to provide service and increase sales. While advances in transportation have not kept pace with computer technology, it is still possible to take a commercial airline or drive considerable distances in a short amount of time.
To assist travelers, a global positioning system (GPS) has been developed to inform the traveler of his or her exact location. Located hundreds of miles above the earth, GPS uses satellites to triangulate a traveler""s location and determine the exact location of the traveler on the earth within a few feet. GPS devices have been developed and placed in automobiles, airplanes, and hand-held devices to assist people while traveling across the earth. The devices determine the distance from satellites and triangulate the data to determine a geographic coordinate. Devices can then transpose other known structures, such as highways, cities, and points of interest to orient the user using a graphical display.
While a traveler may know his or her exact geographic, location, a challenge with the current art is communicating the geographic data to the traveler""s pervasive computing device to further assist the traveler while on the road. As mentioned before, pervasive computing devices often have access to the Internet. Internet users often browse the information available on the Internet using a World Wide Web browser (xe2x80x9cweb browserxe2x80x9d). Examples of web browsers include Microsoft""s Internet Explorer(trademark) and Netscape""s Navigator(trademark) and Communicator(trademark) products.
To make the Internet easier to use, users often save links to their favorite web sites in bookmark files. Bookmark files contain a list of web sites that the user saves along with the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the site. Bookmark files may become large depending on the number of links the user has saved. Bookmarks can also be received from other users by importing the bookmarks from an external file into a bookmark file on the user""s pervasive computing device. Because bookmark files may become large, they are often organized into sections, or folders, similar to organizing papers in a filing cabinet. For example, if a user enjoys movies, he or she may organize several movie-related bookmarks into a movie folder. When the user wants to go to a movie site, he or she selects the movie folder. If the user travels, he or she may wish to create sub-folders containing local movie information for particular cities that the user frequently visits. A challenge with the current art is presenting geographically-oriented data to the user based upon the user""s present location.
An additional use of pervasive computing devices is scheduling appointments and keeping track of contacts using a PDA. A challenge of the current art, however, is dynamically suggesting changes to the schedule based upon the user""s present location. For example, the user may be driving close to a customer""s location on his or her way to another customer""s site. If sufficient time exists in the user""s schedule, it would be make sense to visit the first customer. However, because of the wide-spread nature of many business markets, the user might not realize that he or she is geographically close to the first customer. A challenge with the current art is making logical connections between a user""s current geographical location and the tasks the user is performing.
It has been discovered that pervasive computing devices can read geographic coordinate data from a global positioning system and select geographically appropriate bookmark files. In this way, the user is presented with bookmarks relevant to the user""s location, rather than having to manually search through bookmarks for sites related to a particular place. Additionally, a user""s pervasive computing device automatically performs commands when the device is within a given proximity to a geographic location. For example, a salesperson""s PDA can alert the user while traveling on a roadway that the salesperson is within a certain proximity to a customer""s site.
Actions are performed if a proximity command is successful and alternative actions are performed by the pervasive computing device if the proximity command encountered an error or otherwise failed. For example, if a salesperson is within a certain proximity of a customer""s site, the salesperson""s pervasive computing device can access a map of the customer""s location from the Internet and display the map for the user. The successful action would be the display of the map, while a message is displayed if the web site is down or the computing device is otherwise unable to retrieve a copy of the map.
Additionally, a computer network, such as the Internet, is accessible so that other computing devices can perform proximity commands as well as provide bookmark files to the user""s pervasive computing device. In this manner, bookmark files are stored on nonvolatile storage devices accessible through the computer network. When a the user is at a certain geographic location, a set of bookmarks corresponding to the location are downloaded to the pervasive computing device and activated for use by the user.
The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity, simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects, inventive features, and advantages of the present invention, as defined solely by the claims, will become apparent in the non-limiting detailed description set forth below.